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Decolonial Praxis/es of Solidarity in Indian Literary and Cultural Discourses on Social Movements

A Special Section in the journal Contemporary South Asia guest edited by AIAS Fellow Bharti Arora studies how Indian literary and cultural discourses on social movements can forge solidarity among citizens.

Bharti Arora, AIAS-AUFF Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Denmark. Photo credit: Roar Paaske.

A special section entitled “Decolonial Praxis/es of Solidarity in Indian Literary and Cultural Discourses on Social Movements” has been published by the Contemporary South Asia journal, based on a workshop that AIAS Fellow Bharti Arora organised at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh, during her stay as a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow in 2022. An upcoming workshop, Towards Re-forging the Praxis of Decolonisation: Perspectives from the Global South, at AIAS will continue and broaden the discussions of the Edinburgh workshop and the special journal section.

The journal articles of the special section probe how Indian literary and cultural discourses represent the making, unmaking, and remaking(s) of solidarity among citizens, who agitate for their rights, contesting the hegemonic discourses of the nation state. These discourses further reveal ways in which cognitive, volitional and intersubjective relationships forged among people across disparate contexts could lead to shared politics.

Decolonial solidarity praxis/es and social movements

The introduction to the special section entitled “Decolonial praxis/es of solidarity in Indian literary and cultural discourses on social movements” highlights the connection between affective solidarities and social justice. More specifically it focusses on how an informed politics of solidarity is forged when ordinary people, located in their disparate caste/ class, religious and gender positionalities learn to see that the cause of the so-called ‘others’ and their struggles are deeply entwined with one’s own transformation.

“Decolonial praxis/es of solidarity in Indian literary and cultural discourses on social movements” by Bharti Arora can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2025.2451881

Deformed bodies and the decolonial turn

The articles in the special section probe alternative frames of reference for solidarity that emerged across events like the Partition of the Subcontinent in 1947, to the linguistic agitations in favour of Hindi language and systemic failure of the Naxalite movement in post-independence India. Someshwar Sati’s “Deformed bodies and the decolonial turn” takes this debate further as it contests the neocolonial episteme that constitutes the human body as necessarily able-bodied.

“Deformed bodies and the decolonial turn” by Someshwar Sati can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2024.2436888

Affective alliances and everyday solidarity

Haris Qadeer dwells on the forging of affective alliances and dietary solidarities between Dalit and Muslim communities of India and how they could bridge differences across castes and communities, ushering in the moral feeling of hope.

“Subalternity and everyday solidarity in contemporary Indian short stories” by Haris Qadeer can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2024.2439894

Upcoming workshop at AIAS - Towards Re-forging the Praxis of Decolonisation

Considering how pertinent it is to contest the colonial matrix of power and probe ways in which we re-forge the praxis of decolonisation, Bharti Arora aims to continue this discussion further at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies.

She is organising an upcoming workshop on the theme of decolonisation in the global South, highlighting the entanglements of Danish colonial history and its implications for Greenland, Faroe Islands and Ghana, among other themes.

More details about the upcoming workshop can be found here:  Towards Re-forging the Praxis of Decolonisation: Perspectives from the Global South

Contact

Bharti Arora,
barora@aias.au.dk

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, AIAS
Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark